The Granger Case
by Arctic Jessie
Summary: The death of Hermione Granger left everybody in a lurch but a certain Draco Malfoy is determined to find out why. DM/HG.


_Hello! I apologise in advance for anyone who expected updates for The Burden of Hate and Love. I just don't have much inspiration for it at the moment. So, this is a new idea I had. _

_Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter belongs to J. . I do not do this for any profit._

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She was gone.

After everything, she was just fucking gone.

It hit him like cold ice that he was never going to see her angry again. Never see the way her hair swished back and forth in its messy state or wake up to be suffocated by the same hair. Never going to see the crinkles by her eyes as she laughed or the almond eyes narrow when she got pissed off. Never going to see the laugh lines around her mouth or kiss her lips again. He was never going to see her warm face anymore because she was just... Gone.

Draco Malfoy never cried but he let the tears fall this time. Just this one time. Just for Hermione Granger.

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**GOLDEN GIRL FOUND DEAD**

_Hermione Jean Granger, 23, was found dead at her apartment on Sunday morning, at 7:15. Granger, best known for being best friend of the famous Harry Potter, survived the War and is one of the most famous witches to this day. A vital person in the Golden Trio, she accompanied Harry Potter and Ron Weasley when they were on the way to destroy He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. _

_The last person to have seen her was said to be Mrs Ginny Potter (nee Weasley), 21, wife to the said-above Harry Potter. Though Mrs Potter has told us that she has no comment to make when we asked, our sources tell us that she had had dinner with her the same day and had left at 21:00 to tend to her son (James Sirius - 1). Another source tells us that Mrs Potter told them that Granger had looked 'perfectly normal' the night before. However, the Aurors were alerted by Mrs Potter's brother, not to mention one of Granger's best friend and ex-boyfriend, Ron Weasley. _

_Weasley, 22, tells the Aurors that he only came to drop off something but no one answered the door. Because of a spare key he owned, he entered the house, only to find her lying at the bottom of the stairs, her wand lying weakly beside her. At once, he alerted the Aurors and... [more to read on the next page] _

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Cold facts.

Cold, hard facts were all he had. He didn't even have her brains to help him figure it out. He was on his own.

Fucking hell, he was on his own.

What was wrong with him exactly, he's not sure. All he knew was that it was all her. It was her, just everywhere. He found himself missing her more than he did when she was alive. Which should be obvious. Heck, he didn't know. He wasn't thinking straight.

Breathe in, breathe out.

He wasn't the Head of the Auror Department, no. He wasn't even Assistant. Those titles remained with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, respectively. He probably wasn't one of the best there, either. But the Aurors dealt usually with Dark Wizarding cases and he knew a lot about that. Wasn't he one himself? But times had past, people changed. Grudges stayed the same though, sometimes. Anyhow, Harry and Ron were off; they had asked for leave to deal with the death of their best friend.

Oh, yes. Hermione Granger. It always led back down to her, didn't it?

And so he was left to deal with the Auror Department. Well, maybe not really. Like The Boy Who Lived would trust him in charge, no matter how long ago their rivalry stood. No, some girl called Katie Bell, who had apparently been in the department way before them. He vaguely recognised her from Hogwarts. Go figure. He had been offered leave as well, just like Harry and Ron. They knew something had been going on with Hermione and him, even if they both denied it. It started with a one-off fuck. Then another. And another. That was they realised that it was more. But they didn't want to rush. Things were slow, trust still wavered between them. Things would be blown out of proportion and, truth be told, neither of them were ready with the commitment for each other. They had time, didn't they?

Didn't they?

Even though he wasn't officially in charge, Katie had other pressing matters in hand to sort out. Yes, even bigger than the murder of the Brightest Witch of Her Age; Death Eater activity had been sighted around Britain - the remaining ones, anyway. Of course they were going to investigate Hermione's murder, too; just not right now. They needed time and the department was put under much strain and stress recently. People were starting to get uneasy again.

He had taken it upon himself to look into Hermione's case. Did he really like self-inflicted pain that much? He didn't know. Maybe. Probably. He tried to convince himself that it was because it was another case. Another person that needed justifying. But he couldn't lie to himself for that long. He just needed closure. He needed a reason for all this. The reason she was suddenly taken from life.

Not that he cared.

"What a lie." At first, he thought it was his own voice in his head. Then, he realised how much deeper the voice was and he turned to see the face of Blaise Zabini, closely followed by Theodore Nott, walking through the door of his office.

"Yeah, you said it out loud," Theo commented nonchalantly, noticing Draco's face. He pulled up a chair and put his feet up, Blaise sitting down next to him.

"How do you know what I was thinking about anyway?" Draco said, mildly annoyed.

"What else would it be?" Blaise replied. "It's Granger, isn't it? It has been for a couple of weeks."

Draco made a sort of growl noise. "What are you two even doing here? Aren't you meant to be a floor up, Nott?"

Theo raised his eyebrows but only smirked. "Ooh, last name basis. Honestly, Draco, friend for about 20 years."

"Answer the bloody question. I have work to do." Draco signalled to the files on his table.

Theo and Blaise glanced at each other and it didn't go unnoticed.

"What?" He folded his arms.

"Alright, so." Theo leant forward on his chair. "Blaise told me all about the Granger case."

Draco turned to Blaise, who raised his hands. "I'm not the only Auror. The whole department knows. It didn't help you went to Bell's office to argue about getting the case."

"And what if I did?" Draco addressed Theo.

The two other men glanced at each other again and Theo took a deep breath. "We both want in."

"What?"

"You heard him." Blaise leant forward in his seat too, his elbows resting on his knees. "We want to help."

Draco stared at them both for a moment before shaking his head, muttering, "You're both mental. Why the fuck would you do that?"

"I haven't had a real case in months. They're not even trusting me out on the front line for a while since rumours have it that one of my ex-stepfather's there," Blaise said in a bored voice. "They don't think I would capture him if I had the chance. Stupid, really."

"Yeah, work's slow," Theo agreed. "Anyway. It'll be interesting."

"You think?" Draco muttered under his breath before raising it again. "No."

"Why?"

"Because."

Theo rolled his eyes. "Oi, Blaise, look. Draco backed up his reason with such a great answer, I don't think we should do it."

Draco scowled at the sarcasm. His best mates were seriously getting fucking annoying. It was times like this when he missed the clueless Crabbe and Goyle as 'friends'. Lackeys were a more appropriate word but that was beside the point. "Well, I, unlike you, Nott, actually work in this department and I, unlike you, Zabini, was given the case so I, unlike the both of you, get to decide who's helping me and who's not."

"What a stuck-up arsehole," Theo commented to Blaise. "Shut the fuck up for once, Draco, and let us bloody help. We'll leave your pride alone, if you do."

"Theo, mate, tone it down," Blaise told him, half amused. He was always the calmest of the three and he could see Draco getting more and more agitated.

Draco turned away from the two men, thinking. He had two options here: tell them to bugger off and that he could do it himself, or accept their help, for the sake of her. He knew she would want them to help him and he gave a large sigh. "Fine."

"Really?" Blaise's eyebrows shot high up his head, quickly. Granted, he- Theo and him both- had expected more of an argument.

"Do you want in or not?" Draco snapped. He looked back down at the files he had splayed over his desk. "Look, this is all that was given to me. Have a look, whatever."

Blaise hesitated for a moment but Theo went straight to look. Seeing Theo leafing through the pile, Blaise did so too.

"'Granger, 23, found dead at her apartment'," Blaise read aloud, Theo peering over his shoulder. "Blimey, there's hardly anything to lead on."

"It says here that Potter's wife was talking to her the night before," Theo pointed out. "That's, at least, something. Why don't we just talk to her or whatever?"

"Maybe I was planning to, today, before you two came butting in." Draco gritted his teeth.

"Let's go then," Theo said, clapping his hands together. He stood up.

"Who said you two were going?" Draco questioned with a snort.

"You let us in the case already, we're coming." Blaise said firmly.

Draco only rolled his eyes and sighed. "I literally meant not right now, smart arses. I have to owl them first."

"Why?" Theo said stubbornly.

"Auror rules state we ask for permission first," Draco told him, giving Blaise a pointed look. He grabbed a quill and a sheet of parchment and wrote on it. He clicked his teeth at his owl by the window, which flew over. He attached the letter to its leg and it flew away. "We need a reply. If she says no, we still go anyway."

"Great." Theo sat back down. "What do we do now?"

"How about you go back to your work?" Draco suggested, clearly dismissing them. "I'll let you know when she replies."

Theo opened his mouth, no doubt to try and retort back, but Blaise just stood up and grabbed his arm to lead him out. "Alright. Make sure you let us know."

"Yeah, yeah."

They nodded at each other in goodbye and left, leaving Draco alone with his thoughts again.

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_Reviews are helpful; tune in for later chapters!_


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